I’ve been seeing more stories lately about local city councils voting to put up “In God We Trust” plaques in their buildings. There’s no much we can do about it. All they have to do is say “It’s the country’s motto!” and the argument that it advances religion becomes moot, even if that’s entirely accurate. [Read More…]

A House committee is supporting omnibus legislation for greater oversight of home day care businesses in the aftermath of child fatalities in the homes of unlicensed providers, including the death of a 1-year-old Chesterfield County boy in a fire last fall. …

In addition to the licensing threshold [which lowers the number of children that home day care providers may take under their wing without obtaining a license], the omnibus bill would require fingerprint background checks for licensed day care centers and home providers, but not unlicensed providers and those with a religious exemption, who would be subject only to a name background check as they are now.

Late tonight, Moore ordered all probate judges not to issue same-sex marriage licenses tomorrow, the first day gay marriage is legal throughout the state. What happens now is still up for debate, but it could very well be the second time Moore loses his job over his Constitution-be-damned philosophy that places the Bible above our laws.

In 2010, Ireland adopted a new blasphemy law, rather than striking blasphemy off the books altogether. Now that controversial legislation will be tested for the first time, because the Muslims behind Ireland’s Islamic Cultural Center are insisting that locally-available copies of Charlie Hebdoconstitute a violation of the law.

Ireland’s Islamic Cultural Center has said the presence of a depiction of the prophet Muhammad on the front page of the satirical publication, on sale now in Irish shops, is a clear breach of the country’s blasphemy legislation. …

Ahmed Hasain, the executive secretary of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin, said: “In our view, the sale of this magazine is a breach in Irish law. It is blasphemous and it is illegal under the legislation. It’s against the law here in Ireland, that is quite clear.”

When you have to defend your stance against legal abortion, it inevitably forces you to say really stupid things, because there’s just no decent way to explain why a woman who’s been raped should be forced to give birth to the child.

That didn’t stop West Virginia Delegate Brian Kurcaba (below) from giving it a shot, though.

Yesterday, while debating a bill that would ban legal abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, Kurcaba (a Republican, of course) waded in with this stunning line, according to Charleston Gazette reporter David Gutman: